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For the latest news about developing for Google+, please read the Google Developers blog. We’ll post all new announcements about the Google+ API, buttons, and developer tools to the Google Developers blog instead of this one. As always, you can find documentation for the Google+ platform and getting started guides at https://developers.google.com/+/. Thanks and happy coding.

Today we’re updating the Google+ sharebox in two ways, making it even easier for users to share with the right people from your app:

1) Better auto-complete. Now when users start adding recipients, auto-complete will suggest Gmail contacts, device contacts, and people on Google+. And of course: users can also just type in an email address.

Auto-complete now suggests Gmail contacts, device contacts, or anyone with a Google+ profile.

2) Suggested recipients. Users often share with certain people more than others (like family, for example), so the new “Suggestions” experience highlights these frequent and/or recent contacts at the top of the sharebox. Adding a recipient is as easy as tapping their photo.

Suggested recipients now appear at the top of the Google+ sharebox

Check out our developer documentation to learn more. If you’ve already added the Google+ sharebox to your iOS app, just upgrade to the latest iOS SDK to use today’s features.

In today’s installment of interactive post best practices, we’ll review how +Mashable makes it easy to further the conversation around their content and create lasting engagement. Let's take a look at how they’ve done this:

Interactive post shared with a “View” call-to-action button

Ayush has shared an article on Mashable with me. When I click the “View” button in the interactive post, I’m taken to the article page on Mashable. Mashable encourages meaningful on-site interaction by displaying who shared the article with me, and inviting me to discuss the article with that person. Having context and a targeted action button entices users to respond back and keep the conversation going.

When I’m taken to Mashable, they include sharing context and encourage me to respond back.

When I click the “Discuss with Ayush Agarwal” button, the Google+ sharebox includes a pre-filled message to Ayush ("Thanks for sharing, +Ayush Agarwal"), and it adds him as a recipient in the “To” line. I can then extend the conversation by adding additional text and sharing with more people from my circles or with specific email addresses.

Mashable pre-fills Ayush as a recipient in the “To” line and pre-fills some text in the sharebox.

Mashable’s unique way at providing social attribution for those who share content furthers the conversation in an authentic and meaningful way. By working interactive posts into your user flow in a relevant way and by making it easier to share, you can keep users engaged in your content longer.

Today we’re launching three updates to Google+ Sign-In, making it easier and more effective to include Google authentication in your app:

1. Support for all Google account types
Google+ Sign-In now supports all Google account types, including Google Apps users, and users without a Google+ profile.

2. Easy migration from other auth methods
If you’re using OpenID v2 or OAuth 2.0 Login for authentication and want to upgrade to Google+ Sign-In, we’ve made it easy to do so; it’s entirely your choice. Google+ Sign-In can grow your audience in multiple ways — including over-the-air installs, interactive posts, and cross-device sign-on — and now it’s fully compatible with the OpenID Connect standard. For more details, see our sign-in migration guide.

3. Incremental authIncremental auth is a new way to ask users for the right permission scopes at the right time, versus all permissions at once.

For example:

If your app allows users to save music playlists to Google Drive, you can ask for basic profile info at startup, and only ask for Google Drive permissions when they’re ready to save their first mix.

Likewise: you can ask for Google Calendar permissions only when users RSVP to an event, and so on.

Now that incremental auth is available for Google+ Sign-In, we recommend asking for the minimum set of permissions up front, then asking for further permissions only when they’re required. This approach not only helps users understand how their information will be used in your app, it can also reduce friction and increase app engagement.

8Tracks only asks for the necessary permissions to get users started in their app.

Once in the app, 8Tracks prompts users to connect their YouTube account to get mix recommendations.

This is the first in a 2-part series that chronicles best practices for interactive posts. Come back next Monday to read the 2nd installment.

As part of our launch of Google+ Sign-In we introduced interactive posts: Google+ posts with custom calls-to-action button like buy, listen to, review, or just view. We’ve since found that interactive posts have a click-through rate that’s 3x higher than a standard share! In this two-part blog series we’ll cover a few best practices for incorporating interactive posts into your app. In today’s installment, we’ll review how +Fancy has integrated interactive posts into their app resulting in highly targeted, action-oriented shares. Let’s take a look at how they’ve done this:

When I create a group gift on Fancy, there’s a prompt to ask friends for contributions. Prominent placement of the button on the page encourages users not to miss it. When I send the post to friends they’ll see the “Contribute” button in the post, taking them back to Fancy to add funds. Fancy has also integrated Google Wallet so users can pay with just one click.

Fancy designed their site to help users involve friends in meaningful ways. The action they want users to take is included as descriptive text on the share button, and it’s relevant to what users are doing on the site. This produces a clear and compelling case for involving friends. By giving users meaningful context why they should involve friends in your app and prominently displaying the call-to-action, you can create highly targeted, action-oriented shares.

Today we are announcing version 1.4.0 of the Google+ iOS SDK. The new version includes two of the most highly requested features from the developer community:

In-app share box. Now your users can share with their Google+ circles, directly from your iOS app! In addition, the native in-app share box supports image and video attachments. If you've already implemented browser-based sharing, you can switch to the native in-app share box with a single line change: